Nick Splat
NickSplat (formerly The '90s Are All That and later The Splat) is a programming block that airs nightly on TeenNick. The block shows reruns of classic mid-late 1980s, 1990s, and early-mid 2000s children's programming, mostly shows that aired on Nickelodeon during their original runs. The block airs eight hours, running every night from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.1 Its name and logo comes from Nickelodeon's historic logo, a white brush-printed wordmark on an amorphous orange background (often manifested as a "splat" shape, but which was frequently rendered in many others), which the network used from 1984 to 2009. The block was preceded in the format by The '90s Are All That, which debuted the night of July 25, 2011 (early July 26) and was inspired by a large amount of interest in classic Nickelodeon series from the 1990s by users of social mediaoutlets such as Facebook.2 From October 7, 2011 through October 23, 2011, the block aired in an earlier time slot, from 10 p.m. to midnight.3 Response to the debut was very positive; hashtags pertaining to the block became trending topics on Twitter4 and the Nielsen Ratings for TeenNick on the debut night increased to between eight and 60 times the ratings TeenNick received in previous weeks, beating numerous higher-profile basic cable programs in the same time slot.5 The '90s Are All That was originally two hours in length, with most of that time airing from midnight to 2 a.m. Eastern Time. Beginning October 5, 2015, the block expanded to eight hours encompassing the full overnight block (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.), began airing a broader variety of series and rebranded as The Splat.6 To align itself with Nickelodeon's cross-platform branding, The Splat was renamed NickSplat on May 1, 2017.7 An hour was trimmed off the beginning of the block on October 1, 2017. Programming Current programming NickSplat runs a mix of permanent shows (as of early 2016, all original animated series, i.e., Nicktoons) with various other series from Nickelodeon's history featured irregularly. Episodes are typically repeated several times in a given week. The following shows currently have a permanent slot on the schedule: Other series that have aired on the block so far on a rotating basis include: Programs with an asterisk (*) previously had aired on The '90s Are All That prior to the rebrand. Only two shows aired on The '90s Are All That that have yet to air on NickSplat: The Secret World of Alex Mack and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (the latter of which, a show that originally aired on Fox Kids, only aired on The '90s Are All That as part of a one-time special presentation). Note: These are broadcasting dates, which begin at 6 am and end 24 hours later.11 U-Pick with Stick On October 7, 2011, Stick Stickly, who hosted the Nick in the Afternoon block during the mid-1990s, returned to host the block on Friday nights. The Friday night block revived the "U-Pick" segment from Nick in the Afternoon, allowing viewers to vote online to decide which shows they want to see. Citing Stick's New Year's Hangover, U-Pick went on hiatus for January 2012. The first U-Pick post-hiatus was a showdown between Rocko's Modern Life and The Angry Beavers on February 3. The winning show was Rocko's Modern Life and it aired on the block for the entire weekend. U-Pick returned in early March for a showdown between Salute Your Shorts and CatDog with a marathon over the weekend of March 23 at stake. Salute Your Shorts prevailed. Following the departure of Paul Christie, the voice of Stick Stickly, in March 2012, U-Pick was moved exclusively to an online content, in which the winning show would have a number of full episodes released for streaming on the block's official website; the first online U-Pick featured CatDog against Rocket Power with the latter as the victor. Later matchups included Double Dare vs. Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Clarissa Explains It All vs. The Secret World of Alex Mack (the last of which was abandoned before voting was closed). Stick Stickly did return on August 5, 2013 to host '90s Game Show week (see "Special events"), then on a more permanent basis in a Wednesday night time slot beginning in June 2015. Votes for the 2015 incarnation are cast via Facebook comments. Special programming The '90s Are All That occasionally broke from the standard program format to air episodes of series that, because of either problems with securing the broadcast rights or not enough episodes to rerun the series in a regular time slot, did not get a regular spot on the block's lineup. The occurrence of these special program appearances varied widely; they were common in the first few months of the block but would not appear for several months at a time (thus ensuring the airing of the same reruns over and over again after a few months). NickSplat abandoned the set program schedule block and these types of shows now air in a more frequent rotation. Potential programming Other shows previously mentioned or alluded to as series that would be included in the block but, to date, have not appeared, or have only appeared online, include:12131415 * Cousin Skeeter * Wild & Crazy Kids In most of these cases, rights issues have proven to be an obstacle to clearing reruns. Pete & Pete, in particular, used such an extensive music library so pervasively throughout the show that neither securing the broadcast rights to all the music nor editing the music out of the show were feasible (similar issues have prevented numerous episodes of that show from being released on DVD); it would take over six years before any full episodes aired on the block.16 The original interstitial shorts aired on the block in December 2013 and have aired on NickSplat, but no full episodes have yet aired on the block in either incarnation despite initial statements that the show would air. A similar factor forced the musical guests to be cut out of the block's reruns of All That. Likewise, the numerous animators who were involved in KaBlam! each needed to give their permission to air their contributions, which held up that show's inclusion for five years. A similar situation existed for the classic cartoons that had been used in Weinerville breaks, whereas rest of that show remains in the ownership of its host and creator, Marc Weiner; that series would eventually become part of the schedule by the time of the launch of The Splat, with the cartoons removed. The Amanda Show was originally set to be included in the block but has instead aired separately in its own, varying time slots during TeenNick's daytime lineup. It was eventually added to The Splat's lineup in June 2016.17 History 2011–15: Launch as "The 90's Are All That" Labor Day 2011 featured double episodes of Hey Arnold! and Rocko's Modern Life to mark their debut on the lineup. The weekend of Halloween 2011, dubbed "Stick or Treat", featured a special edition of U-Pick that accompanied episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, in which viewers chose horror-themed shows and specials. The previously lost film Cry Baby Lane, which was aired once on Nickelodeon in 2000, aired on The '90s Are All That on October 31. The network stated it was a "write-in candidate". In addition to the U-Pick lineups, The '90s Are All That also scheduled marathons for Thanksgiving week. Salute Your Shorts, Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, All That, and Kenan & Kel all had at least one marathon night. For the first time in the block's history, all eight slots were filled by different episodes, whereas on the regular schedule, the second two hours repeat the first. Early Christmas Eve 2011 was marked with "Merry Stickmas", featuring several Nick Christmas specials chosen by viewers via a special U-Pick ballot and original Nickelodeon IDs from the era. The final week of 2011, dubbed "Party Like It's the '90s", featured shows originally featured in the 1995 through 1999 incarnation of SNICK. KaBlam! and Animorphs were excluded and replaced with other SNICK programs of the era. This also included '90s Nick ID's. The December 31 edition, called "Stick Clark's New Year's Sticking Eve", featured the revival of "U-Dip," another Nick in the Afternoon feature, as an homage of the large list of objects dropped on New Year's Eve across the United States. Nickelodeon's trademark slime won the vote. The block started at 10 pm and ended at 2 am, with a re-air from 2 am–6 am, to accommodate the occasion.18 To symbolize the end of 2011, the regular-length series finales of The Secret World of Alex Mack, Kenan & Kel, Clarissa Explains It All, and Doug aired from 10 pm to midnight. To symbolize the beginning of 2012, the above-mentioned series premieres aired from 12 to 2 am. The night also featured Stickly's brother Woodknot and Face, who was the host of Nick Jr. for several years. It was, to date, the only appearance of any Nick Jr. property on the block until Face appeared again on March 27, 2016.19 To celebrate Super Bowl XLVI, a special U-Pick won by Rocko's Modern Life aired the weekend of on February 3, 2012, also chronicling Stick and Woodknot's trip to the Super Bowl in a new Stick special, "Stick Goes to the Big Game". Salute Your Shorts won the U-Pick showdown against CatDog and aired the weekend of March 23 as a Stick Stickly special called "Stick's ShamROCKing Weekend", celebrating St. Patrick's Day at the parade in New York City. On the week of March 26, 2012, to celebrate the 2012 Kids' Choice Awards, the block launched KCA Back in the Day, in which during commercial breaks, they aired archived clips of past Kids' Choice Awards shows from the 1990s. Coinciding with the 2012 Summer Olympics, the game shows Figure It Out, Family Double Dare, and Legends of the Hidden Temple occupied the entire block on the weekend of August 3. This was the first schedule change of any length in over 4 months. For Halloween 2012, on October 30 and 31, the block aired episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, as well as Halloween episodes of All That, Doug, Rugrats, and Kenan & Kel. Thanksgiving 2012 was celebrated from November 22–25 by airing two nights of marathons for Hey Arnold!, followed by Rugrats marathons for the last two nights. On both's first nights, their respective Thanksgiving episodes aired. Beginning Christmas Eve and ending on December 30, the block aired an event titled "Holiday GIFT Guide", promoting their official Tumblr page by posting GIFimages of Holiday-related '90s Nickelodeon scenes (the GIFs would also be aired via bumpers during this event). All week, the block also aired marathons of Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, Doug, All That, Kenan & Kel, and Clarissa Explains it All. Remixed versions of classic Holiday Nick ID's were also shown. Starting early New Year's Day 2013, the block aired Rugrats marathons for the first week of January, Hey Arnold! in the second, Doug during the third, Clarissa Explains it All during the fourth, and Kenan & Kel to finish the month. For the week of Valentine's Day starting February 11, the block aired "Valennineties", featuring love-themed episodes of Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, Clarissa Explains It All, Salute Your Shorts, and Rocko's Modern Life. It included several valentine bumpers. To celebrate Nickelodeon's 2013 Kids' Choice Awards, the block launched "'90s Your Choice Awards 2013". Beginning March 5, viewers could vote on the block's website for their favorite categories involving '90s Nickelodeon. The winners were announced March 18–22 at midnight, and the winners were Doug for Favorite '90s Jam (The Beets), Kenan & Kel for Favorite Forbidden '90s Love (Kel and Orange Soda), Doug for Favorite Not-So Superhero (Quailman), The Wild Thornberrys for Manliest Mustache (Nigel Thornberry), and Salute Your Shorts for Craziest Cameo (Zeke the Plumber), and the winning shows aired in the Midnight timeslot of the night they were announced the winner. During the week of the '90s Your Choice Awards, alongside the winning show for that night, airing at Midnight, Rugrats aired for the rest of the block. The '90s Your Choice Awards aired on Monday March 18 to Friday March 22. Leading up to April Fool's Day 2013, the network advertised the debut of a long-lost episode of Rocko's Modern Life that would air the night of March 31. The episode turned out to be a still image of a can of mayonnaise; the incident is a reference to the Rocko two-part episode "Wacky Delly," in which the producers of the show-within-a-show "Wacky Delly" deliberately air such an episode in a failed attempt to sabotage the series. The week before Memorial Day 2013 featured "Meme-orial Week," in which fans submitted their '90s Nick-themed memes for air during the block. The memes appeared during the shows. The week of June 3–6, 2013 was branded "Summer Blockbusters" and features television movies based on 1990s Nickelodeon series, including Rugrats: "Runaway Reptar", Kenan & Kel: "Two Heads Are Better Than None", CatDog: "The Great Parent Mystery", and Kenan & Kel: "Awww Here it Goes to Hollywood". These would reair on Fridays and Sundays throughout the rest of June. On August 3, 2013, the block aired a one-hour marathon of Legends of the Hidden Temple, after the show won the '90s Nick Facebook Faceoff, a four-round knockout tournament to determine the best Nickelodeon series of the 1990s. From August 5 to August 8, 2013, Stick Stickly hosted '90s Greatest Game Show Moments, which was a week that featured a game show episode every night, and special moments. The block aired Family Double Dare, Global Guts, Figure It Out, and Legends of The Hidden Temple. On August 17, 2013, the block celebrated the 21st SNICKiversary (21st anniversary of SNICK) by airing Clarissa Explains It All, The Ren & Stimpy Show, All That, and Are You Afraid of the Dark?; all but All That were aired during the inaugural SNICK lineup (All That appeared in place of Roundhouse, which Nickelodeon lost the rights to shortly after it aired). New bumpers were produced as part of the celebration, and the shows' "We'll be right back" outros made for the block were used. From September 23, 2013, to September 26, 2013, the block aired cat-related episodes, under the name "The '90s Are All Cat". Featured shows were Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, CatDog, The Ren & Stimpy Show, All That, and Kenan & Kel. Special "cat-ified" episodes aired at 11pm and 1am under the names Meow Arnold!, RugCats, All Cat, and Kitten & Kel. The block also aired pictures of fans' cats that were sent in to the block's Twitter (@90sAreAllThat) using #90sAreAllCat, and the block dressed up the cats as '90s Nicktoon characters. They also had a game to correspond with the event. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the first series not to have originally aired on Nickelodeon during its original run, celebrated its 20th anniversary over "Mighty Morphin' Weekend", November 8, 2013 to November 11, 2013. The second sets of two hours were not occupied by repeats of the first, and in fact episodes had a shorter running time, which meant 9 different episodes aired each night, totaling 27. On November 25, 2013, the block aired party-themed episodes, as part of "Mix-Tape Monday". It included CatDog, Clarissa Explains it All, Hey Arnold!, Kenan & Kel, Rugrats, and Doug. Fans were invited to record a short Vine or Instagram video introducing each show in the style of Total Request Live for potential airing between shows. Mix-Tape Monday was advertised to return on December 16, 2013 with Holiday episodes of shows, though they did not air. A Valentine version was also promoted but, again, did not air. From December 23, 2013 to December 31, the block aired The Secret World of Alex Mack, the block debut of My Brother and Me, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Rocket Power, Salute Your Shorts, and Hey Dude alongside marathons of Hey Arnold!, Kenan & Kel, and Rugrats. From January 1 to January 12, 2014, the block continued airing the above-mentioned shows. In honor of the 20th anniversary of The Adventures of Pete & Pete, the block aired the original interstitial shorts during commercial breaks. From February 14 to February 16, 2014, the block aired Valentine's Day themed episodes of Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, CatDog, Doug, All That, and Kenan & Kel. From March 24 to March 27, 2014, Rugrats aired during the entire block. On March 28, 2014, the block aired 90s Your Choice Awards where fans could vote for their favorite 90s Nick shows. Hey Arnold! and Rocko's Modern Life won the vote and aired during the entire block that night. On April 21, 2014, the block aired Hey Arnold!, Doug, Rocko's Modern Life, The Angry Beavers and The Ren & Stimpy Show as part of Mix-Tape Monday. Songs featured in a show's episode and theme songs were seen in a karaoke style. On June 7, 2014, Rocket Power joined the lineup, replacing Kenan & Kel and All That. This was the first major schedule change in over a year. On June 16, 2014, the block aired Hey Arnold!, Rugrats, CatDog, Rocko's Modern Life, and The Ren & Stimpy Show as part of Summer Mix-Tape Monday. An anniversary marathon of Hey Dude aired on July 14, 2014, 25 years to the day of the show's debut on Nickelodeon. An anniversary marathon of Rocket Power aired on August 16, 2014, 15 years to the day of the show's debut on Nickelodeon. From October 27 to October 31, 2014, the block aired Halloween episodes of Hey Arnold!, CatDog, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Rugrats, Kenan & Kel, and Doug, along with episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark?. In response to the death of voice actress Christine Cavanaugh, the block scheduled a series of episodes of Rugrats episodes centering on the character Chuckie Finster, originally voiced by Cavanaugh, for the night of January 1, 2015 (no special New Year event had been scheduled that year). From March 30, 2015 to April 3, 2015, the series aired specials or "Out of the Vault" specials including an April Fools Day episode of The Wild Thornberrys, Kenan & Kel, All That as well as airing the two-part Rugrats TV special Runaway Reptar, Kenan & Kel's Two Heads Are Better Than None TV movie, and Cry Baby Lane, as well as Weinerville which was slated to air in 2011. This is the first time in 18 years that Weinerville has been broadcast. 2015–17: Rebrand as "The Splat" "The Splat" logo, used from October 5, 2015 to April 30, 2017. On September 11, 2015, the block's Facebook page announced a new program block called "The Splat".20 It was later confirmed that, beginning October 5, 2015, the block would rebrand as The Splat, and expand to eight hours. The same general format and program library is being used, with less repetition of series; whereas The '90s Are All That aired most of its shows five days a week, The Splat added a number of shows into the rotation that had either not yet been seen on the previous block or had only aired as special presentations, no longer airing them on a set weekly schedule.6 Along with the name change, The Splat has also often been treated as a separate entity of TeenNick, as TeenNick commercials and promotions do not appear on the block. To celebrate the New Year, The Splat aired the "90s Nick Dance Party," featuring programs that debuted in 1995 on December 31, 2015 (along with it a running countdown to "1996" instead of 2016), and programs that debuted in 1996 on January 1, 2016. On March 27, 2016 in preparation for Easter, Face from Nick Jr. appeared on the block once again in a sketch where he attempts to help viewers find the Easter Bunny.19 On April 1, 2016, just minutes into a broadcast of CatDog, a random cutaway21 occurred abruptly leading to the music video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley featuring Stick Stickly in many scenes. This was dubbed "#StickRoll" and served as an April Fools' Day prank referencing Rickrolling, a form of internet pranking popular in the late 2000s. Later, during a broadcast22 of Doug, the channel's aspect ratio was rotated 90 degrees as another joke. On August 11, 2016, The Splat celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Nicktoons by air the first three (Doug, Rugrats, and Ren & Stimpy) while the creators sat on the orange couch discussing the show and behind the scenes and continued by airing a different Nicktoon for an hour every weekend (with the exception of Thanksgiving Weekend and Christmas Eve) until the weekend of December 3–4 which included premieres of KaBlam!, ChalkZone, Action League Now!, and Oh Yeah! Cartoons. On October 22–23, The Splat aired four unaired episodes of As Told by Ginger from Season 3, that have never aired in the US, after almost 10 years of the airing an episode from this season, that was first aired on Nicktoons. On November 23, The Splat aired in simulcast with Nick at Nite a reunion special of Double Dare to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the show's premiere. The special featured the cast of All That participating in a new first-run episode of the game; to accommodate the simulcast, The Splat began airing an hour earlier than usual.23 On November 27, The Splat aired the new Nickelodeon TV movie Legends of the Hidden Temple. On April 1, 2017, The Splat aired April Fools episodes of Hey Arnold!, Rugrats, As Told By Ginger, and Kenan & Kel. While their respective episodes played, random clips of different Nickelodeon shows made cutaways. 2017–present: Second rebrand as "NickSplat" To align itself with Nickelodeon's cross-platform branding, The Splat was renamed NickSplat on May 1, 2017.7 The content and styling of the block remains the same. On June 17th and June 18th, NickSplat aired the "Pete and Pete Takeover", which was a marathon where episodes of "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" played all night, along with commentary with the two main characters. On June 24, 2017, NickSplat introduced "Nick Flicks" where movies of various shows air every Saturday night (a revival of a format that had aired on Nickelodeon from 2001 to 2002). For August of that year, Nick Flicks was replaced for the month with a revival of the SNICK block to honor the block's 25th birthday, with shows from the block (such as Clarissa Explains It All, Are You Afraid of The Dark?, The Ren & Stimpy Show, and The Adventures of Pete and Pete) airing from 11PM-1AM. In addition, several tidbits and random facts about SNICK would occasionally pop up on screen, a la Pop-Up Video, during the shows, and the original bumpers for the block were used before and after commercial breaks. NickSplat was shortened to a seven-hour block beginning October 1, 2017. Awards and nominations Media and merchandise Emoji keyboard app In September 2015, along with the announcement of The Splat, it was also announced that a new keyboard app would be release to the Apple App Store and Google Play, which is titled "The Splat Emoji Keyboard" developed by Snaps Media. The keyboard features pictures and GIF's of 90's Nicktoons characters and various objects. The app was released in October 2015, coinciding with the launch of The Splat.25 On May 2, 2017, the app was renamed "NickSplat Keyboard" to coincide with the name change of the block. Website In 2011, when the block was known as "The 90's Are All That", it had its own dedicated website, which featured clips, the schedule, and voting sections.26 In 2014 when the block re-branded, the website was removed and was simply a webpage on TeenNick.com. When The Splat was announced, a new website was made immediately, and is still in its original form. The current webpage features quizzes, clips, and posts from their various social media pages.27 International versions United Kingdom In 2016, Nickelodeon UK launched a UK version of "The Splat". Instead of it being a block, it's an online only service on Nick.co.uk.28 For a limited time in 2017, Nicktoons UK broadcast some of the shows from the block. Netherlands & Flanders In December 12, 2016, Nickelodeon Netherlands & Flanders launched a dutch version of "The Splat" called simply as "Splat". The block airs on weeknights at midnight since the channel was extended to 24/7 programming.293031